Supplementing user web-browsing

ABSTRACT

An apparatus and method of providing a user with a web-browser supplement is disclosed. One method includes providing access to a focal group, wherein the focal group includes at least one member having at least one association with the user. Access is provided to information associated with the at least one member having relevance to the focal group. Web browsing by the user is supplemented by the information of the members of the focal group.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/258,053 filed on Sep. 7, 2016, which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/685,959 filed onApr. 14, 1959, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 13/899,890, filed May 22, 2013 and Granted as U.S. Pat. No.9,032,302, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/588,169, filed Aug. 17, 2012 and Granted as U.S. Pat. No. 8,479,100,which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/316,992,filed Dec. 18, 2008 and Granted as U.S. Pat. No. 8,276,079, which claimspriority to provisional patent application No. 61/008,957, filed Dec.21, 2007, which are all herein incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE DESCRIBED EMBODIMENTS

The described embodiments relate generally to web browsing. Moreparticularly, the described embodiments relate to a method and apparatusfor supplementing a user's web browsing.

BACKGROUND

The internet can connect individuals through, for example, a mesh ofsocial networks, portals, commerce sites and forums. Many of these sitesattempt to model relationships to facilitate commerce and build systemsfor providing recommendations. These social networks include manyindividuals that can interact with each other.

There is a lack, however, of a useful mechanism within social networksfor mimicking interpersonal trust and reference networks. For example,if one needs to find a babysitter, a heart surgeon or a plumber, onegenerally turns to trusted friends to obtain references. That is, thesereferred service providers involve the well-being of family, and/orimpact one's finances, and therefore, are typically naturally screenedby the person looking for a reference. However, the recommendationsprovided by social networks do not include a personal connection betweenthe recommender and the receiver of the recommendation. Additionally,the strength of the recommendations can be difficult to determine.

It is desirable to have a method, system and apparatus in which groupsof commonly associated individuals can provide an internet user that isweb browsing with additional intelligence. It is additionally desirablethat the method, system and apparatus be adaptively updated asinformation associated with the groups change over time.

SUMMARY

One embodiment includes a method of providing a user with a web-browsersupplement. The method includes providing access to a focal group,wherein the focal group includes at least one member having at least oneassociation with the user. Access is provided to information associatedwith the at least one member having relevance to the focal group. Webbrowsing by the user is supplemented by information of the members ofthe focal group.

Another embodiment includes a method of overlaying web browsing withfocal group intelligence. The method includes creating a focal group,wherein the focal group includes at least one other user having at leastone association with the user. Information about the at least one otheruser having relevance to the focal group is obtained. Web browsing bythe user is over-layed, thereby supplementing the web browsing by theuser by providing information of the other users of the focal group.

In certain embodiments, systems and methods in accordance with variousembodiments of the present disclosure may overcome one or more of theaforementioned and other deficiencies experienced in conventionalapproaches to providing relevant content. In particular, variousembodiments describe systems and methods for supplementing a user's webbrowsing based on grouping criteria. For example, a request is receivedfor content to be displayed on (or otherwise presented via) a computingdevice, in this case for a particular user of the computing device. Theuser can be associated with a user account and the user account can beassociated with a portable aggregated social graph, which includes aplurality of user accounts organized into one or more focal groups basedat least in part on grouping criteria. The grouping criteria can includeat least location information such as a desired geographical location,an actual geographic location, or time information that includes anindication of a time event. A time event can be an event occurringduring a particular period of time.

In order to provide relevant information from focal group membersassociated with a focal group, at least one member for a focal groupfrom the plurality of user accounts is identified based at least in parton the grouping criteria, the at least one member having an associationwith a user of the user account. The identified user account(s) can beassociated with a focal group and the identified user accounts canprovide members access to information based at least in part on arelevance score associated with individual members. This can include,for example, providing information from members associated with ahighest score although in various other embodiments information can beprovided in accordance with other approaches.

From the perspective of a user, a user experience may be defined interms of the degree to which the focal group members are relevant to theuser. In an effort to provide the most relevant content, as well as tofacilitate user engagement, systems use various techniques to analyzeand select, from a large set of available members, a subset of membersthat are relevant to a user's interests. For example, in order to keep auser engaged, a ranking algorithm such as a relevance profile used torank focal group members is optimized based at least in part on aperceived level of importance of members of the focal group. In anembodiment, to determine a level of importance, a level of affinitybetween the user and the members of the focal group is determined, aswell as a level of proficiency or expertise of individual focal groupmembers. As additional data for the user and/or members is gathered,such as through the user or members interacting with content associatedwith the grouping criteria, the rankings can be updated accordingly. Therankings and selection can be used to determine members to select, andthe selected members can be used to determine content to present to auser, which can improve the overall user experience while increasingprofit for the provider of that content.

Other aspects and advantages of the described embodiments will becomeapparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example theprinciples of the described embodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an example of a user computing device that can utilizemethods of supplementing web browsing of the user.

FIG. 2 shows the computing device of FIG. 1, and examples ofsupplementing web pages being browsed by the user.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart that includes steps of an example of a method ofsupplementing a user's web browsing.

FIG. 4A shows an example of a visual display that can be used toadaptively depict relationships between a user and members of a focalgroup.

FIG. 4B shows another example of a visual display that can be used toadaptively depict relationships between a user and members of a focalgroup.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart that includes steps of an example of a method ofoverlaying web browsing with focal group intelligence.

FIG. 6 shows a Social Application Overlay, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 7 shows an overlay that includes focal network reviews, accordingto an embodiment.

FIG. 8 shows an overlay that includes reviews of focal networkreviewers, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 9 shows an overlay that includes suggestions from other vendors,according to an embodiment.

FIG. 10 shows an example of information of a user's focal network,according to an embodiment.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example process for determining relevant contentbased on grouping criteria for a geographic location in accordance withvarious embodiments.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example process for determining relevance scoresthat can be utilized in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example process for updating content inaccordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 14 illustrates an example process for determining relevant contentbased on grouping criteria for a time event in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example process for determining relevant contentbased on grouping criteria in accordance with various embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As shown in the drawings for purposes of illustration, the describedembodiments are embodied in an apparatus and method for supplementingweb browsing of a user. The web browsing can be of any form includingtextual, audio or visual formats, and can be supplemented with anycombinations of textual, audio or visual formats, or any other formatthat can be used for web browsing.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a computing device 110 that can utilizemethods of supplementing web browsing of a user of the computing device110. For this embodiment, the user's computing devices includes aplug-in 120. An embodiment of the plug-in 120 is a software program thatwhen executed supplements the user's web browsing by supplementinginformation provided by the web browsing with information associatedwith a focal group. That is, the user's web browsing is improved bymanipulating the information provided to the user based on intelligenceand information provided by members of the focal group or obtained bymembers of the focal group.

As shown, the computing device 110 is connected through a network 130 toweb server 140 and a focal group server 150. For this example, the webserver 140 allows the user to “surf” the internet, and access web pages.The web pages provide the user with information related to a subject asgenerally (but not exclusively) determined by the user. The web server140 and the focal group server 150 are shown as separate servers.However, it is to be understood that this is merely one example of howaccess to web page information and focal group information can beprovided.

As shown, the focal group server 150 maintains information of the focalgroup. Generally, this information includes the members of one or morefocal groups that have some relationship with the user. Additionally,the focal group server 150 can maintain information of each user of eachfocal group. As will be described, the members of the focal group can beone or more individuals and/or corporate entities. The focal group canbe created or borrowed from somewhere else. The information associatedwith each member can include many things, such as, for example,preferences, knowledge, history of interactions with the user, and/orexperiences of the member. Additionally, the focal group information canbe supplemented with focal group applications.

Supplementing Web Browsing

Supplementing the user's web browsing can be provided in one or moreways. The web browsing can be supplemented by, for example, providingadditional information to information provided by a web page, filteringinformation of the web page, and/or sorting information of the web page.Again, the supplementation is based on the information associated withmembers of the focal group, and therefore, the intelligence of the focalgroup members can be used to the advantage of the user when webbrowsing.

Focal Groups

Generally, a focal group is a small restricted group of people who areassociated based on activity or topic. The focal group can include, forexample, a group of friends, family members or people with commoninterests. As will be described, a focal group can include any number ofmembers. The member can be individual people or even corporate entities.The focal group can include, for example, a single person who isconsidered an expert in a particular subject area, or the focal groupcan include many individual who are commonly associated by some activityor other criteria. The focal groups can be formed or borrowed fromsomewhere else.

Focal Group Information

As described, web browsing of the user is supplemented by the focalgroup information. The focal group information can include, for example,a proficiency of group members, a degree of affinity between groupmembers, a history of proficiency and affinity of group members, amember's rating by group members, reviews and/or opinions of the member,any information contributed by members, events involving a group member,actions taken by a group member, requests for information put in byother group members for a group member, and/or member ownership of aproduct or usage of a service. It is to be understood that an embodimentincludes the focal group information being dynamic. Actions by each ofthe focal group member can cause the focal group information to change.

The described embodiments can include various types of informationassociated with the members of the focal group. One type of informationis the affinity of each focal group member with the user. The affinitycan be adaptive and is generally based on the strength of therelationship and level of interaction between each focal group memberand the user. The affinity can be “deduced” and/or “assigned”. Anassigned affinity is one that is given by one focal group member toanother, based on an individual perception or information. A deducedaffinity is one that is computed automatically from several assignedaffinities, based on one or more affinity formulas.

For other embodiments, another type of information is a proficiency ofeach focal group member. The proficiency can be adaptive based on thelevel of competence and/or expertise regarding a subject matter.Proficiency can be “deduced” and/or “assigned”. An assigned proficiencyis one that is given by one focal group member to another, based on anindividual perception or information. A deduced proficiency is one thatis adaptively computed automatically from several assignedproficiencies.

For other embodiments, another type of information includes focal groupapplications that can, for example, extend the overlay and run withinthe framework of overlay. An example of a focal group applicationincludes, for example, an “add to wish list” application, that includesan icon displayed on a web page, such that when the icon is clicked(selected), it adds a given item (displayed on the original web page) toa focal group member's wish list. (A wish list in this context is a listof items that the user wishes to own—the list is maintained by the focalgroup user so that other users can access it, and provide, for example,gift ideas).

Overlay

As described, an embodiment of the supplementing the user's web browsingincludes providing the user with a web overlay. The overlay provides anintelligent software framework that runs focal group applications,supplements, filters, sorts and displays the browsed information.

Overlay Plug in

An embodiment of the overlay plug in includes a software componentinstalled on a user's computer. For an embodiment, the plug in isinstalled in a web browser as an extension. In an embodiment, thepurpose of the plug in is to provide the user with access to Focal Groupservers and communicate with the servers. More specifically, thisembodiment includes sending contextual information describing the weblocation being visited by the user, and/or receiving instructions andinformation and/or knowledge enabling the plug-in software to supplementthe browsed info. In certain embodiments, one of a semantic languagetechnique or an image recognition technique can be used to analyze thecontent displayed on the interface to recognize content and determinecontextual information or other such information operable to be used todescribe the content such as what type of content is presented (e.g.,image, video, text, sound, etc.), a category the content can beassociated with (e.g., entertainment, shopping, shopping categories,event, location, etc.).

FIG. 2 shows the computing device of FIG. 1, and examples ofsupplementing web pages being browsed by the user. FIG. 2 includes twoexemplary web pages 210, 220 that have been supplemented by informationof a focal group.

The web page 210 provides an example of a web overlay that supplements aweb page being displayed by the computing device 110 by providingadditional information to the display that is, for example, related tothe information of the original web page being displayed by thecomputing device. In an embodiment, the original web page can beanalyzed using one of a semantic language technique or an imagerecognition technique to determine contextual information for the webpage. The additional information provides the user with relatedinformation from a more likely to be trusted source (the focal group).The web page 210 as viewed by the user includes the original web pagetext, but additionally includes the overlay 212 that includes supplementtext that can be related to the information of the web page. Thesupplemental text of the overlay is derived or based on the informationassociated with the members of the focal group.

The web page 220 provides another example of a web overlay thatsupplements a web page displayed by a computing device 110 by filteringinformation of the web page 220. That is, based on the information ofthe focal group, information of the original web page is filtered,thereby providing the web user with a better presentation of theoriginal web page based on the information of the members of the focalgroup. The overlay 214 can include filtered or sorted information of theinformation associated with focal group. For one embodiment, the sortingand/or filtering of the information associated with the focal group isbased on the information of the web page 220. That is, either or boththe information of the web page, or the information presented by theoverlay 214, can be filtered and/or sorted based on the other of theinformation of the web page and the information presented by the overlay214.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart that includes steps of an example of a method ofsupplementing a user's web browsing. A first step 310 includes providingaccess to a focal group, the focal group comprising at least one memberhaving at least one association with the user. A second step 320includes providing access to information associated with the at leastone member having relevance to the focal group. A third step 330includes supplementing web browsing by the user by providing informationof the members of the focal group.

As previously described, one embodiment includes a plug-in loaded on theuser's computer, that when executed, supplements the user's webbrowsing. A more specific embodiment includes the plug-in providing theuser with a web-browser overlay. Execution of the plug-in provides theuser with the web overlay that supplements web browsing by the user.More specifically, one embodiment includes the web overlay providing theinformation associated with the at least one member that has relevanceto the web browsing of the user. Other embodiments include the weboverlay filtering, and/or sorting information of, for example, a webpage based on the information associated with the at least one focalgroup member. In yet another example, the web overlay can emphasize thecontent or interface with an identifier, wherein the identifier isrelated to the information associated with the at least one member. Forexample, the identifier can include a graphical representation of afocal group member, including in various embodiments icons, images,videos, emojis, memoji, animated selfies, or other markings or content(still and/or animated) that can that be used to provide a visualrepresentation of a focal group member.

For proper operation, the plug-in has access to the focal group, and tothe information associated with the at least one member of the focalgroup. As previously described, the access can be through a networkconnected to the user's computer, and to one or more servers thatmaintain the members of the focal group, and the information associatedwith each of the users of the focal group.

As previously described, an embodiment for supplementing the webbrowsing includes an overlay. Based on information of, for example, webpage being browsed by the user, an embodiment includes the overlayproviding at least some of the information of the at least one member ofthe focal group. The web browsing of the user is supplemented byproviding the user with focal group intelligence. That is, theinformation provided by the overlay enhances and improves the user's webbrowsing by providing the user with additional intelligence as providedby the information of each of the members of the focal group.

One embodiment includes the information provided by the overlay relatingto information of a web page being browsed by the user. That is, theoverlay supplements the web browsing by providing additional information(focal group information) that is related to the information beingprovided by the web site. Additional information can include, forexample, past experiences of one or more of the focal group members,and/or recommendations by the one or more focal group members based onthe past experiences.

The overlay can additionally or alternatively use the information of thefocal group to filters information of the web browsing. That is, theinformation provided by web browsing can be filtered based on theinformation of the focal group. All of the information provided be a webpage may not be useful, and the user's web browsing can in somesituations be improved by filtering the information of the web page. Onemethod of filtering the information includes filtering it based oninformation of the members of the focal group.

For example, a user can visit on online book store and view a pagedisplaying a set of books. However, if the user has the overlay plug-inenabled, the displayed set of books may be a subset of the originalresults of the query, wherein the subset displayed is based on thefiltering performed by the overlay plug-in. That is, for example, onlythe books owned or reviewed by members of the Focal Group, or by membershaving a certain affinity to the user or proficiency in the subjectmatter may be displayed.

The overlay can additionally or alternatively use the information of thefocal group to sorts information of the web browsing based on theinformation of the at least one member of the focal group. That is, theinformation of the web can be sorted based on the information of thefocal group.

For example, a user can visit a website that provides restaurantreviews, and the user can submit a query to find a good restaurant in aparticular area. Originally (without the overlay), the results of thequery that are returned by the website, for example, is sorted byratings given by random reviewers. However, if the user has the overlayplug-in enabled, the sorting of the displayed results is furtherimproved by strategically positioning the reviews produced by themembers of the user's focal group who have high affinity or highproficiency in the subject (restaurant knowledge).

The overlay can additionally or alternatively filter the informationprovided by the overlay based upon the information of the web page. Forexample, if a user is visiting a photography website, one embodimentincludes the overlay plug-in displaying information about only thosemembers of the user's focal group that have relevance to the browsedpage(s) in the photography website. For example, a user looking at acamera review of a website views (on the display) only the informationof those members of the focal group who have reviewed or own the camera.

An embodiment of the overlay includes highlighting at least one web pagewith visual identifiers. The visual identifiers are related to theinformation associated with the at least one member having relevance tothe focal group.

For example, if a user is browsing products at an online tennis gearstore, each product can be visually annotated by the overlay plug-inwith icons that reflect information from the focal group relevant tothat product. Furthermore, the user can be allowed to click on (select)an icon to submit the information about the product he/she would like tobe reviewed by the focal group.

It is to be understood that the visual identifier can include any one ofmany different implementations. That is, for example, the visualidentifiers do not have to be icons. Additionally, other types ofiterations between the user and other focal group members can beinitiated by the visual identifiers.

For another example, the visual overlay depicts the affinity map of theuser with the members of the focal group and highlighting those membersthat are relevant to the browsed page. Exemplary affinity maps areprovided in FIGS. 4A, 4B.

Another embodiment of the overlay further includes at least one offetching or requesting the information of the at least one member of thefocal group. For example, a user may click on icon provided by theoverlay next to a product to request a specific member of the focalgroup to provide an opinion or a review about the product. Thisembodiment is very useful because it enables rapidly growth of theinformation of the entire focal group network, therefore making theoverlay more powerful. Another embodiment allows, for example, a user toclick (select) an icon, allowing the user to customize a review form andsend it to members of the focal group.

It is to be understood that there can be methods other than the use ofan overlay for at least one of filtering, sorting or appendinginformation to information of a web page based on the informationassociated with the at least one member. That is, an overlay as shownand described here is one method of supplementing web browsing. Othermethods of supplementing web browsing based on the information of afocal group are also possible.

An embodiment includes ranking the information associated with themembers of the focal group. The general reasoning being that higherranked information can have a greater influence on how the web browsingof the user is supplemented. For example, one focal group member may beidentified as being a particularly good expert on the subject matter ofthe web page being accessed by the user. Accordingly, an embodimentincludes the information associated with the at least one member havingrelevance to the focal group, being ranked by a level of importance. Forone embodiment the ranking of the level of importance of information isinfluenced by a perceived level of importance of each of the at leastone member associated with the information. Other embodiments includethe perceived level of importance of each of the at least one memberbeing influenced by at least one of a member rank on a relevant topic, alevel of affinity between the user and each member, a level of expertiseof each member, a level of trust of each member, a level of performanceof past information provided by each member, a level of proficiency ofeach member.

One embodiment includes the affinity between the user and each focalgroup member having substantial influence over the ranking assigned toeach focal group member. This can include, for example, the level ofaffinity between the user and each member adaptively varying over timebased on actions of each member, or the user. If, for example, the userhas elected to enable the overlay plug-in access to the user's web-emailaccount, then the overlay can infer changes in the affinity betweenfocal group members based on, for example, how often the members sende-mails to each other. The affinity levels can fluctuate over time,based on increase or decrease of e-mailing activity between focal groupmembers. It is to be understood that inferences of affinity variationsare not limited to e-mail interactions between users. That is, othertypes of interactions between focal group members can influence theaffinity between the members as well.

Another embodiment includes executing at least one focal groupapplication within a web browser based on information of the members ofthe focal group. One example of a focal group application includesexecuting the at least one focal group application comprises requestingadditional information from the members of the focal group. That is, forexample, the user can invite or solicit another member of the focalgroup to provide a review/opinion about something. One embodimentadditionally includes overlaying the focal group application(s) over aweb page being viewed by the user.

One example of a focal group application allows a user to join a focalgroup purchasing consortium to negotiate a better price with any vendor.A vendor can be any online store, as well as any focal group member. Forone embodiment, a vendor can join a focal group and offer groupdiscounts to focal group members. The focal group application retrievesvendor information relevant to that product and displays it to the userbrowsing another web page with relevant products or information (suchas, pricing, targeted ads, or “sponsored” focal group results).

An example of a focal group overlay application includes an overlaybrowser plug-in installed into a user's web browser, and a focal groupoverlay web server. An exemplary embodiment of the focal group overlayweb server includes focal network application business logic, adatabase, an application programming interface (API), and connection toa friend network provider. The focal network application business logiccan include a layer of software code that embodies the actual logicalrules related to updating and keeping current all focal group relations,data, and information. The layer of software code includes “businesslogic” as opposed to the other layers of the code that include commonframeworks, web and database infrastructure. The database providesstorage for focal group contents and focal group information. The APIprovides communication to the overlay plug-in. The connection to thefriend network provides a connection to at least one of any availablesocial networks.

The described embodiments can be illustrated by one example (a userbrowsing a catalog of products on an online store) of providing a userwith a web-browser supplement. Initially, a user arrives at amerchandise selection webpage in an online store. An overlay plug-insends a uniform resource locator (URL) of the browsed page to a focalgroup overlay web server, invoking a corresponding API call. Inresponse, the focal group overlay server sends information parsing rulesthat allow the overlay plug-in to analyze the content of the page. Theoverlay plug-in analyzes the web page and parses the identityinformation about each particular product, such as product brand,product title, product model, serial number or PLU or barcode. Theoverlay invokes another server API call, passing the collectedinformation to the focal group overlay web server. The focal group webserver can respond, for example, with multiple lists for each identifiedproduct on the page.

An exemplary list can include a list of “experts”. That is, members ofthe focal group sorted by highest proficiency, with names, photos andother information about each member, including any related productreviews created by these members.

Another exemplary list includes a list of “close friends”. That is,members of the focal group sorted by highest affinity, with similarinformation for each member.

Another exemplary list includes a list of “actions” related to thisproduct. The actions list can include a “request review” in which a useris able to ask one or more members of a focal group for anopinion/review of this item. Other action lists can include, forexample, a “Submit review” in which a user can provide his/her ownreview, an “I own it” in which a user can let other members of the focalknow that he/she owns this item, a “Rate it” in which a user provides a“thumbs-up/thumbs-down” type of quick voting button, to let the usercast a rating vote about this product, an “Add to wish list” in which auser can let other focal group members know that this is an item he/shedoesn't mind receiving as a gift, and a “Group bargain” in which a usercan add him/herself into a group of people who want to team up forbuying this item at a bulk discount.

As previously described, the focal group overlay can include focal groupapplications. The focal group overlay can include, for example, anaction button (or icon) that invokes a specialized focal groupapplication. The plug-in can render (creates visual elements for), forexample, two lists of focal group members (reviews of experts & reviewsof friends) as well as action icons/buttons that enhance the currentlybrowsed page. The resulting page that is displayed to the user, is amerge of the original product page, as sent by the web server of theonline store, plus the elements created by the overlay plug-in. Theadditional visual elements (pictures of focal group experts/friends andaction buttons) are displayed next to the related product items on thepage. The user can click on (select) any friend or expert's photo orname and read the review or rating for each product. Additionally, theuser can click on any “action” icon to invoke the corresponding action.This way, the user is able to use the knowledge of his/her focal groupto help decide on the purchase of a product. Using the “action” icons,the user contributes to the knowledge of his focal group (e.g. byproviding his/her own review, or by requesting a review).

An embodiment of the web-browser supplement allows, for example, thirdparty developers to add their own focal group applications. One exampleof a focal group application includes a mini-button, or an icondisplayed next to any item on the page that is recognized by the overlayas a target item (i.e. around which the overlay creates some enhancedcontent, or filtering, or sorting). Additionally, a set of configurationdirectives specifying the kinds of items (products, services, etc.) thatthis application are enabled for one or multiple web-pages of theapplication that augment the existing web-pages within the focal groupoverlay web server. The existing web-pages are the web-pages that theusers see when they click on the mini-button. These items can beuploaded by a focal group application developer to the focal groupoverlay web server via, for example, a special application-registrationform.

For an embodiment, all focal group applications, including thoseprovided within the focal group overlay website by default, use the sameAPI to retrieve and manipulate focal net information. The focal groupAPI provides the focal group application with access to the focal netinformation. The focal net information can include, but not limited to,social graph links, affinity and proficiency information, user profileinformation (as restricted by the user's access preferences), focalgroup affiliation, user-created reviews, ratings, and/or anyuser-related information contributed/created by other focal groupapplications.

Another embodiment includes providing user web browsing results to otherwebsites, and mining additional information from the other websites foradditionally supplementing the web browsing by the user. For example, ifa user is looking at a camera of brand “A” in an online photographystore, the focal group application can send relevant information to acamera-maker company of brand “B”. The camera-maker company can thensend competitive pricing information on the same or comparable product.The information about camera “B” can then be presented to the userbrowsing information about camera “A” via overlay's enhancing the webpage. As a result, the user is better informed about comparableproducts.

As previously described, the information associated with member of thefocal group can be adaptively updated. For example, one embodimentincludes adaptively updating the information associated with the atleast one member based on web browsing of the user. Another embodimentincludes adaptively updating the information associated with the atleast one member based on web browsing of the members. For example, if afocal group member is considered an expert in tennis (that is, has ahigh focal group proficiency rating) and is buying a tennis racquet inan online store, the information about the purchase may be considereduseful, and therefore, is sent to the focal group and appended to therest of the existing focal group information.

FIGS. 4A and 4B show examples of visual displays that adaptively depictthe relationships between a user and other members of a focal group. Therelationships depicted can include, for example, the reliability of onemember of the focal group, or an affinity of members of the focal groupwith a user.

FIG. 4A shows a first focal group member F1 and a second focal groupmember F2. As shown, the first focal group member F1 has a firstactivity A1 (for example, playing tennis) involving the second focalgroup member F2, and the first focal group member F1 has a secondactivity A2 (for example, purchase of a product) involving or associatedwith the second focal group member F2. Based on the activities betweenthe focal group members, rankings of the focal group members can beinfluenced. The rankings can represent the reliability and/or theaffinity of each member with other members of the focal group. Clearly,the ranking can adaptively vary over time as interactions between thefocal group members occur.

FIG. 4B provides another depiction of the relationship(s) between focalgroup members and provides a relative strength of the relationship(s)between the focal group members. As shown, the first focal group memberF1 has varying degrees of closeness with the other focal group membersF2, F3, F4. The “closeness” can depict an affinity between the firstfocal group member F1 and the other focal group members F2, F3, F4. Asshown, the first focal group member F1 has a high level of affinity withthe second focal group member F2 because the two members are depicted asbeing closer to one another. The first focal group member F1 has a loweraffinity with the fourth focal group member because they are depicted asbeing farther from each other. This display provides an informativemethod for a focal group member to establish the levels of affinitybetween the focal group member and other focal group members.

It is to be understood that the displays of FIGS. 4A, 4B are merelyexemplary, and that other displays can alternatively or additionally beused to visually display to a user the strengths of relationshipsbetween the user and other focal group members.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart that includes steps of an example of a method ofoverlaying web browsing with focal group intelligence. A first step 510includes creating a focal group, the focal group including at least oneother user having at least one association with the user. A second step520 includes obtaining information about the at least one other userhaving relevance to the focal group. A third step 530 includesoverlaying web browsing by the user, thereby supplementing the webbrowsing by the user by providing information of the other users of thefocal group.

As previously described, the overlay can be a plug-in that can be loadedon a user's computing device. The overlay enables a transformation ofthe state of information displayed on the user's computing devices,thereby supplementing the displayed information based on information ofthe other users of the focal group.

Embodiments as Disclosed by Provisional Application

Web 2.0 has connected individuals thru a mesh of social networks,portals, commerce sites and forums. Many of these sites attempt to modelrelationships to facilitate commerce and build recommender systems.

Yet absent from the web is a general, utilitarian mechanism that mimicsinterpersonal trust and reference networks. Imagine you need to find ababysitter, a heart surgeon or a plumber to remodel your bathroom. Oneturns to trusted friends to obtain references, since these providersinvolve the well-being or health of your family, or a significant amountof money (and typically frustration) in the case of the remodel.

A more mundane example is attempting to screen references for internetpurchases like books or camera lenses. Amazon has an excellent mechanismfor consumers to review books, but is the reviewer's opinion and tasterelevant to you? Dpreview.com has an excellent forum with contributionsfrom skilled photographers, but who are these reviewers? Anyrecommendation from a friend with similar taste in reading, or from aprosumer photo hobbyist, is trustworthy. How does the unknown revieweron the internet compare?

Your friends, or their friends, have the recommendations or referencesyou need; they just aren't available on the web. Three mechanisms areessential to securing a reliable reference or recommendation: trust,ranking/proficiency and a recommender system. A useful recommendationwill be from someone you trust, with relevant expertise and experience,and similar taste or values.

A Web 3.0 solution that addresses this void would provide immense valueto internet users and represents an unparalleled business opportunity.

To be useful to users on the internet, the solution would need tooverlay the internet with the social applications that bound a user tothe activities, references and tracks left by the user's socialnetworks. We describe this as a Social Application Overlay, since theoverlay would overlay any internet website, combining the target websitewith the user's social networks through a variety of unique mechanisms.This would allow a user to leverage his social networks from anywebsite.

FIG. 6 shows a Social Application Overlay, according to an embodiment.The solution has the following components:

-   -   A user's aggregated social networks—his/her social graph        (SAG)—of trusted contacts, split and refined into specific Focal        or Activity Networks, or FN and AN. This would connect users        into categorized activities or focus areas, as opposed to broad,        flat SNs.    -   A website would be used to manage these FN, and will allow users        to import existing contacts from social networks, email        programs, etc. The closest solution available currently is        LinkedIn with its degrees of separation and ability to leverage        your contact network; of course, the FNs would support ranking        and categorization that is not available on LinkedIn.    -   Social applications relevant to any activity in the FN. Examples        include mini-feeds of reviews, purchases, website        recommendations and annotations, shared by the members of that        activity.    -   An internet-wide social application overlay, or SAO, which lets        a user access and leverage his social network and applications        from any website. The SAG becomes an overlay on the internet and        provides immediate access to all of the applications and        attributes of the FN, and simultaneously provides an FN based        “frame of reference” to any web content.    -   Ranking and recommendation system based on the trust inherent in        the FN, that measures activity-specific proficiency of users        (ranking) and both product and service references        (recommendation) for specific categories. The closest solutions        available today are sites like Yelp, Angie's List or the Berkley        Parents Network; however, these sites have no trust network        hence recommendations are from strangers, unless you invest        considerable time reviewing their contributions and assessing        the contributors.    -   Programmatic APIs that allows partner websites to leverage the        entire FN and SAO. Two APIs are supported, one to allow website        integration with the FN (FN-API), and a second to allow        development of SA on the FN (FN-SA-API). Websites with relevant        content and databases of users can immediately create FN based        social networks which can be accessed from and integrated with        the website, either transparently or tightly coupled. This        provides four benefits to the website:    -   an instant social network    -   access to the larger SG and FN community    -   the viral marketing (thru the FN) that will drive more        users/consumers to that site, and the promotion of specific        products endorsed by the community    -   revenue sharing of product/service/advertisement accessed thru        the FN community SAO.    -   Data mining of existing websites, social networks and databases        to interact with the FN-API. Data can be used to update the        social applications in the FN, for example to rank and recommend        people and products.    -   Facebook and OpenSocial solutions to allow users of existing SNs        to integrate with the FN.    -   Ecommerce site integration, (Amazon web services)

The Web3SA Social Application Overlay—SAO

The SAO allows access to any FN SA or service from any internet website.

This unique technology allows a user to leverage his FN at any page onthe internet. The technology recognizes a range of relevant items on anyweb page—Web 3.0 objects, URLs, tags—and provides relevant FN servicesto each item or object. This technology is completely client side, socan operate transparently on the website.

At a webpage, plug-in and icon technology is used to identify objectsrecognized by a user's FN as relevant, or to operate on the object withFN services. For example, a user browsing for a product on an ecommercesite will see FN icons for known reviewers or for reviewed/recommendedproducts. If the user selects the icon for a reviewer, a Web3SA framewill contain that reviewer's FN profile relevant to that category.Similarly, by selecting a product icon, a Web3SA frame with relevantreviews is displayed.

The range of object services includes, but is not limited to

-   -   Show FN reviews about the visited site and/or product/service        used    -   Which friends have recently visited this site (or currently        visiting), bought/used this service/product, or other related        sites, products or services (this is on an opt-in basis to        respect friends' privacy).    -   Add a site/URL review    -   Review/recommend products to FN    -   Rank a user    -   Request product review from FN    -   Share object with network    -   Show or search for similar services and products available from        other Partner sites    -   Buy product from FN vendor    -   Annotate for FN or a particular user. Mark this        page/product/service/website to be noted by friends (specify        which FN or friend)    -   Read object annotation    -   Add to wishlist, save list, etc.    -   “Other people who used this site/product/service, have also used        this other site”—a-la Amazon's suggestion of other books to buy.        Although this is non-FN, it can be a value-add for the user,        because “wisdom of the crowd” is useful even if it is a crowd of        unfamiliar people.    -   Turn SOA Icon services on/off,    -   Turn SOA object icons-highlights on/off—to highlight all        relevant objects    -   navigate into the main Web3SA website

While the list above appears overwhelming, simplicity of use is key, andservices are tied to context and objects. Only the relevant services areavailable at the appropriate part of the target webpage.

These object services are generally invoked by selecting an icon, or byhighlighting text and mouse-clicking it, which in turn generates apane/frame in—really above—the client browser. The icons can be embeddedat partner websites, enabled for all objects, or will appear when rolledover. The frame appears above the web-page and contains the relevant FNservices that operate on/with that object.

The Web3SA Plug-in and Widget

Each Web3SA has access to the SOA thru the Web3SA plug-in, which theuser must install in his browser.

Once installed, the user has access to an ever-present icon—the Web3SAWidget—hovering over any web page that the user navigates to. The widgetmay be on the page, or on the toolbar. The Web3SA widget can expand to asmall window on mouse-over or mouse-click; the window has options tocontrol SOA services on that web-page, typically to control SOA servicesavailable at that page, general SOA settings, or to navigate thru FNs,SAs, or to access the Web3SA site. Services that require frames arepresented in a Web3SA frame.

SOA Services at Websites

The SAO services available on a website are split into three categories,depending on the level of integration of the website with the SAO:

-   -   Integrated—this website has been enhanced to interoperate with        the FN-API and can therefore run SAs that leverage the FN    -   Targeted—prominent web properties that the FN recognizes, with        specialized support for the target service    -   Standard—the standard SOA operates on all other websites

Standard Websites

No integration with the website is necessary; all FN services aredelivered thru client-side browser technology, and all services arecompletely transparent to the web-server. FN services are delivered in aseparate frame with no interoperability with the original web-page.

Even with this limitation, comprehensive FN services are applied toobjects in the served page.

Targeted Web Sites

Web3SA will develop additional services to enhance user experience atprominent websites.

Search

Possible FN services on results for google search include:

-   -   highlighting pages with relevant FN content    -   filtering pages based on FN SA criteria    -   FN partner ad placement

Ecommerce

FN services will be targeted for ecommerce content.

Integrated Websites (FN Partners)

Partners that integrate the FN APIs can invoke FN services or write SAfor FN SNs. The website and web-server will incorporate embeddedicons/services/SA that can be used to enhance the richness of the user'sexperience. For example, products on an ecommerce site can restrictreviews to the user's network, or to reviewers with a certainproficiency.

SOA Usage Scenarios

In this scenario, a user will leverage his FN photography network whilebrowsing for a camera at an ecommerce website, say Amazon. The scenariogoes thru the following steps:

-   1. Setting product and reviewer filters for proficiency and affinity    utilizing the Web3SA Widget.-   2. Finding the SOA icons for the product and reading the reviews in    the Web3SA frame.-   3. Finding the SOA icons for the reviewers and reviewing their    profiles (in and out of FN) in the Web3SA frame.-   4. Selecting the Partners Icon and reviewing offers from these    partners (other ecommerce vendors) in the Web3SA frame.

Setting Filters for Proficiency and Affinity

The Web3SA widget hovers over the browser page; the user selects thewidget and the Web3SA Settings Frame appears above the Amazon page.

The Settings Frame allows the user to control the placement andappearance of Web3SA icons on the browser page, set filters for affinityand proficiency for a variety of object services, including reviewer andproduct filters.

In this example, the user enables product, reviewer and partner icons.

Next, he sets product review filters at 8, set affinity at 7, and FNproficiency at 7, but FoF proficiency higher (since they are out of hisnetwork) at 9.

Once set, these settings influence the icons that appear next on thebrowser page.

Reading FN Reviews

FIG. 7 shows an overlay that includes focal network reviews, accordingto an embodiment.

FIG. 8 shows an overlay that includes reviews of focal networkreviewers, according to an embodiment. Now, the Amazon page has iconsover all products and reviewers (next to their names on the Amazon page)matching the filter criteria.

One of the cameras has a Review Icon; the icon has a count with thenumber of reviews meeting the filter criteria set in step 1. The userhovers over the icon and a Web3SA Review Frame appears with the reviews,sourced from the photo FN (from the Web3SA servers).

The user browses the reviews but needs more information about who thesereviewers are.

Checking the Reviewers Out

Each reviewer has a Web3SA User Icon next to his/her name. The iconsappear on both the Amazon page, and the Web3SA Review Frame.

Reviewers are either in the photo FN, or FoFs that match the filtercriteria. The Web3SA Review Frame displays user profiles for each user.For FN users, the frame also includes the affinity orbit diagram. Otheritems on this frame include all icons relevant to navigating the FN.

Suggestions from Other Vendors

FIG. 9 shows an overlay that includes suggestions from other vendors,according to an embodiment.

The user has access to the Partner Icon from both the Amazon page, andthe Web3SA Review Frame.

This is consistent with the Web3SA navigation paradigm, that icons beavailable on both website and Web3SA frames, and that they becontextually relevant to the objects they service.

By hovering on or clicking the partner icon, the Web3SA Partner frameappears with a list discounted offers for the product being reviewed, bypartner or affiliate. The frame can optionally also contain alternativeproduct suggestions or offers.

Focal Networks

The Web3SA solution is a unique service that allows consumers toconsolidate their focal and social networks at a single, independentsite, and then leverage them from anywhere in the internet. Essentialelements of the solution:

-   -   Consolidates social networks into one SG    -   Categorized networks by activity or focus (FNs)    -   Aggregation from other SNs, automated    -   Interoperable (FOAF, XFN compliant)    -   SG portability    -   Proficiency    -   Affinity within the FN    -   Extensible SA—The FN will also expose an API for development of        additional SAs    -   Reference lists—people, service providers, products

The core paradigm of the solution is that large, flat networksinherently consist of weak relationships, with limited utility. Bygrouping people into smaller networks, information and functionality isrelevant to the focus of the network. In this way, the FN attempts tomodel a user's real-life relationships in the same way they are utilizedin social interaction and bring the benefits of these relationships tothe web.

These fine-grained networks are dedicated to the activity or focus, forexample friends, family, hobbies, and interests. These networks arecombined with SAs like group sharing and notification, mini-feeds, userproficiency ranking, product and service recommendation services.

Each FN is a 1^(st) degree network. The relationships between the FNowner and the members will vary, based on the strength of theconnection, which we describe as an affinity. The affinity of eachmember places him in a relationship orbit around the owner. Over time, amember's orbits/affinity can change, based on the interaction betweenthe two.

The Web3SA and FN Profiles

FIG. 10 shows an example of information of a user's focal network,according to an embodiment. A user's Web3SA profile contains:

-   -   The user's personal data    -   a list of FN    -   reference lists to service providers, products, people    -   his proficiency ranking for various categories, activities and        FNs.

Each FN contains

-   -   members in the network    -   the affinity of each member to the user    -   Vendors, websites, services tied to this activity, membership        with respect to these    -   mini-feeds    -   product reviews    -   object recommendations

Each user will have the ability to create public and private profiles;in all likelihood, users will probably prefer to use different usernamesto segregate public and private FNs and SAs.

Super-FNs

There are a number of “super-FNs” generated and maintained by Web3SA:

-   1. System Aggregated Social Graph (SASG). This is a user's complete    social graph, generated from SN imported from other sites. The user    can browse this SG and import individual connections into his/her    existing FNs.-   2. The worlds view of a user's FN's or SG—WVSG: The system will    allow a user's connections, or even strangers, to edit the user's    FNs and SASG, subject to permissions granted by the user. [IP].-   3. Proficiency based FNs. A user can browse his FNs, and those of    his network, searching for members with proficiencies in specific    areas.-   4. Vendor/website created FNs

Managing FNs at the Web3SA Website

FNs can be created at the Web3SA website or thru an FN-API from partnerwebsites.

Users will be able to manage all of their FNs and SAs at Web3SA.com. FNmanagement:

-   -   Building and managing FNs    -   inviting contacts to join FNs    -   importing contacts or SNs into their SASG    -   Viewing their WVSG    -   Managing system/partner generated FNs SA management    -   Managing and utilizing SAs on an FN    -   Importing, publishing and sharing SAs Reference and proficiency        management:    -   Managing service provider references    -   searching the website for service providers

Affinity

Within a FN, affinity is used to model the proximity of the members tothe owner of the FN. Each member has an affinity level, from 1 to 10, tothe owner. Thus, members are placed in affinity orbits, agradation/refinement of relationship within 1^(st) degree FN. FNs can beviewed in orbital diagrams, providing an exciting visual representationof the FN.

Affinity changes over time, based on interaction, bit also subject toowner overrides. [IP] The dynamic nature of the affinity model socialrelationships and is useful filtering operations within the SA. Otheruses for affinity within SAs? Things that affect affinity levels includeupdates by partner website, level of interaction, etc. The owner cancontrol this by marking a friend at a certain affinity, filterenemies/idiots.

Affinity is especially useful in personal reviews, since they capturethe relationship of reviewer to user vs service provider so well.

Affinity in vendor created FNs?

Data Mining Existing Content into the FN

The internet has untapped, structured data that can be used to buildActivity Networks or SA within the FN.

Utilizing the FN-API, websites can dynamically construct ANs for theirusers. At their next login, these users can then be presented with theseAN which they can chose to use or discard. Current FN members can editthe AN and add to their existing SG, non-members can join the FN.

These AN are shared by the owners of the website and Web3SA; the AN andFN services can be fully integrated into the target website or beutilized in the FNSOA frame.

Web3SA, the website owner and the consumer all benefit. The websiteowner gets access to an SN and SAs; the site and brand are exposed andvirally marketed to the extended FN community. The consumer benefits byincorporating another portion of his internet footprint into his FN. Fordata-mining, we classify websites in the following:

-   -   Sites where users have identity, interact and create        relationships that can be classified into FNs with        affinity-relationships.    -   Sites where users have identity, but with limited interaction        between users. These sites can leverage FNs and utilize SA, but        typically not create FNs.

Websites Examples

Activity based—Examples include oneclicktennis.com,Categorized/canonical databases that model user interactions. Newconnections can be built, and affinity and proficiency ranked. [Example:create new relationship when 2 tennis players have played more than Nmatches together, using the number of matches as an indicator ofaffinity and the tennis player Dynamic Rating as proficiency rank].

Ecommerce—(amazon.com, buy.com, newegg.com . . . ). At these sites thereis limited user interaction, it is primarily user-to-websiteinteraction. Thus, these sites' historical data contribute less to thecreation of new FN, but can enhance SA and proficiency ranking. [Example1: X buys a lot of books about subject M. His friends Y and Z canbenefit from seeing X as “more knowledgeable” about subjects M and N,and elect to receive minifeed from all kinds of partner sites regardingX's activities related to subject M. Example 2: Recognizing whoreviewers are, aka Elimination of the Stranger syndrome]

Ecommerce sites may create their own FN dedicated to shopping, style,reviews, etc.

Forums/communication/user-press—email, reviews, chats, blogs. In thesesites, users do interact with each other via plain-English (or otherlang.) communication. Thus, the exact nature of their interaction isharder to deduce and generally not structured into a data model, and itrequires data-mining technologies such as natural-language semanticalparsing. However, most such sites do offer a mix of bothcanonical/formalized DB records that can be directly mediated into newFN graph-building blocks, as well as “vague” natural-languageinteractions—text exchange, commentary, emails, editorials and userreviews [Example: user X who has exchanged 200 emails with user Y in thelast 500 days is probably a good evidence that X and Y are at leastacquaintances—we can infer this directly in the website's email-DB,without doing any NLP]

sites w/o user identity/login—(cnn.com?, etc.)—These sites lack SAcontent.

Reference and Recommendation on the Web, Solving the Stranger Syndrome

The FN will address the Strangers on the web Syndrome, by combiningsocial graph and the SOA to retrieve user FN profiles from any propertyon the internet.

There are numerous, prominent websites—eBay, amazon, yelp—that trackusers in various ways. eBay includes buyer and seller rankings, Amazonand iTunes include product reviews, Yelp and Angie's List includeservice reviews. To the reader, these reviewers are strangers, with norelationship to the reader. We call this the Stranger Syndrome. Allforums suffer from the same issue. Fundamentally, the reader must spendconsiderable time learning about each reviewer or trust the wisdom ofthe crowd mechanisms (ranking of individuals by the users of the site).

The FN solution addresses the stranger syndrome at any website byretrieving the stranger's FN profile, in its entirety or a specific tothe website focus. The mechanism used depends on the level of FNintegration of the website; a fully integrated website can accessspecific FN services appropriate to the website, while a non-partnersite will retrieve information based on tags, URLs or with user input toretrieve required information from the FN.

Product, Services and People are not Equal

Web3SA recognizes that the best sources of recommendations are those youtrust; fortunately, they also care enough to respond to your requestsfor recommendations, and to proactively post their recommendations wheretheir friends can find them.

The Web3SA reference network overlay is a social application. Will userscreate a network of references to service providers? Traversing thereference network overlay will benefit the user, who will in turngenerate his own recommendation of the service provider.

Product references are straightforward; typically, there is little for auser to gain by recommending a poor product. She wouldn't do that to herfriends. Product recommendations can often be bound to AN, cameras forphotography FNs, clubs for a golf network, etc. Others arereference-able, but may not be bound to an FN, novels or music, forexample.

Recommending service providers is more complex, especially if they arefriends.

Services on the Internet—how to Choose a Knee Surgeon?

Reference for services, as opposed to products, on the internet is anuntapped business opportunity. The FN will offer a SA writtenspecifically to allow friends to share and solicit existing referencesto service providers: heart-surgeons, lawyers, contractors,baby-sitters, etc.

The existing sites all suffer from the stranger syndrome, and there isno analogue to linkedin's business network for the valuable referencesand relationships held by consumers of services. LinkedIn allows one tosearch thru the business relationships beyond the 1^(st) degree. Thissearch allows one to get to a destination, with minimal support for thecriteria necessary for an effective search, namely the proficiency oftarget and the affinity/trust of the recommender.

How does one find a good knee-surgeon? By leveraging the FN to find oneranked highly (proficiency) by those with the greatest (or perhapsleast?) affinity to the seeker. When trying to find a target service, aseeker cares about proficiency and affinity, and access to the reviewer(his ranking and my affinity to him) and why he/she recommends thisprovider. The reviewer's affinity to the service provider also matters,as opposed to the seeker's affinity to the reviewer (does the reviewercare about the seeker getting the best provider or is the objective tohelp the service provider find one more client?)

Optimizations:

-   -   “Anti-Shilling” filter for reviewers with or without high        affinity to service provider    -   Normalization filter for reviewers

The target need not necessarily be in a user's FN; the ability totraverse the FNs of those in the user's own FN is still more effectivethan a search outside the FN. The most proficient surgeon may not be inthe user's FN, the user would traverse the FN to find the one with thehighest proficiency. Proficiency here is the system ranking (wisdom ofthe crowds) of the surgeon.

Affinity, Proficiency and Reference

A user can prioritize (filtering and sorting) the product reviews basedon his FN affinity with the reviewer, and the reviewer's perceivedproficiency in the subject (both user and system-wide proficiencyrankings).

Use Case Demonstrating Reference Propagation Across FNs

A real life example. I was invited to a party of my OneClickTennisfriend who used Evite.com to get RSVPs for the event. The food at theevent was provided by a catering company. A lot of guests liked thecatering service and would now recommend it to others.

Now, suppose that OneClickTennis and Evite are both Web3SA partners, andI have an FN for each. On the Evite FN I see all my friends who alsovisited the party (and many of whom are NOT tennis players). If one ofthese friends added a review of the catering company and website and Iendorse the same review, it gets propagated through my profile to myother friends on the one or both FN minifeeds, and remains permanentlyaccessible.

Next time one of my FN friends looks for a caterer, they are going tosee my endorsement, and the review of my non-tennis friend (he is a FoFfor them).

Utility to the FN users, endorsement and business for a deservingvendor!

Proficiency

Proficiency is associated with FN, activities, services, etc. The systemwill rely on a manual ranking to conclude wisdom of the cloudproficiency ranking,

Within a FN, the owner will also be rank each contact, and can utilizeboth owner and system proficiency rankings in SAs, searches, etc.

How does proficiency differ from reputation?

State of Social Networks and Sg Trends, Limitations with Social Networks

Existing social networks are typically large and flat; insular, andeveryone is one degree away from you—friends, colleagues, associates,and people are often invited to “connect with” strangers. The driverbehind this seems to be that a large network is beneficial, indicativeof popularity, influence, connectedness, etc. The value of a massiveglut of first-degree connections is similar to the value of largevolumes of information on the internet. Refined, high quality networksare hidden in the first-degree network and mining or utilizing them isinefficient. As with all things internet, the fad tends to overwhelm.

The challenge faced by all SNs currently is stratification of the 1^(st)degree network, but this conflicts with the DNA and business model ofthese SNs, which is to enroll as many eyeballs as possible.Paradoxically, one could argue that since everyone is always 6 degreesaway, proximity in small networks is identical to large ones, but withfewer, more authentic interconnections.

Another frustration for users of SNs is ownership and interoperabilityof the distributed and fragmented social networks. The trend is for SNsto support interoperability and APIs, (FOAF, XFN, hCard, OpenIdentity),but ownership and identity remains fragmented across various sites. Howdoes the consumer get control of his/her own social graph and identity,and manage this independently from vendor sites? Equally important isthe ability to control and determine contextual privacy.

Another aspect to this is the lack of a common identity (identities)across the web, so that random encounters of users on the web point tothe identity of the user. If the identity also included one's socialgraph, then the reader's relationship to the user would be contextual.

Social Network Portability and the Social Graph

All current SNs are walled gardens; the SN is isolated to a particularservice.

Until recently, none of the existing SNs exposed or leveraged their SGbeyond the service itself. The latest trends are to reverse this; thereare open source developers proposing and implementing solutions toexport and aggregate walled SNs into a user's SG. Our expectation isthat by late 2008 there will be open source solutions that allow usersto consolidate their SNs into portable, global SG. But then what?

Benefits to the Consumer

Control one's own social graph

Present the broad social graph and allow user to edit it into FNs.Primary benefit is refine/reduce information overload.

Create meaningful FN

Import, manage and export of data. Allows user to aggregate and then owntheir data. Integration of fragmented identity

Contextual privacy

User centric (web.3.0) net

Shared or group identities, a couple sharing email?

Vendor/Websites Offers/Promotions

Vendors/websites will offer incentives to members of activity specificFN. For example, a vendor may offer points/benefits to FN owners/memberswho enroll the FN in relevant sites. Sporting goods vendors to sportsoriented FNs. [IP]

Group buying power

Web3SA revenue sharing with users, equity promotions

SWOTs

Benefits to Partners

Instant SNs at the partner site

Most ecommerce vendors, or click-and-mortars, have no access to SN orSA. The FN is potentially an exceptional marketing vehicle, one that canbe used to for viral marketing, promotion, sales and analysis.

Access to the Entire Web3SA Community

By creating FN and connecting to the Web3SA solution, partners getindirect access to a larger community. This indirect access is all thruFNs, so is a trusted conduit to FoFs.

FN is Beneficial to Customers

Partners can market and capitalize on the creation of FNs as beneficialto their customers.

The partner can deliver the FN to the customer gratis; no effort isrequired by the customer to create the FN. The FN can be used to websiterelated activities, to promote merchandise, offer discounts, etc.

Viral Marketing

The FN is a viral promotional and marketing tool for any website, sincepartners can leverage their content and users to create SNs and exposethem to the entire Web3SA community.

Enrollment in Vendor Sites/Services

Enrolling users into multi-vendor sites/FNs. Users may join multipleFNs, and enroll in multiple sites simply by joining a FN. When usersinvite friends to join FNs, these friends may opt-in to enrolling insites that service the FN.

Market Research and Analytics

The FN can be used to track user and product reviews, solicit customerinput, etc.

SWOTs

How do we get Partners to promote it to their Partners?

Vendors resist sharing customers

Want to own the FN. Perhaps they should.

Want to control what users do on FN. This is important

-   -   Social networks, including SN search    -   Social applications—groupshare, entertainment    -   Recommender systems    -   Ranking systems    -   Trust networks

The following elements are unique:

-   -   SAO to the internet, filter based on proficiency, affinity        -   Overlay threat—new vendors, products, FN advertising        -   Overlay based on content, not mouse. When landing on page        -   Gui=icons of relevant items, icon to expand relevant items    -   SAO methods/mechanism, either integrated or not    -   FN overlay plus methods, eg search for FN user from amazon,        plugin search for FN attributes of displayed content (dynamic,        automated)    -   My world network and methods to autogenrate and manually add        relationships    -   Reference Network Overlay    -   Single invitation to a SN can automatically/optionally        register/user user with provider and vendor sites.    -   FN page ranking, specific to each user/FN, based on content and        reviewer, proficiency affects,    -   Affinity/orbits—gradation/refinement of relationship within        1^(st) degree FN, affinity of reviewer to user vs service        provider. Method to rank and display SA attribute/service, by        affinity, dynamic affinity to model real social relationships,        method to modify affinity over time based on level of        interaction (API, surveillance by user of friends), affinity        changes over time, fed by partner website/lack of interaction        reduces affinity/user can control this by marking a friend at a        certain affinity/, filter enemies/idiots    -   Method of creating SN by crawling websites with non-SN data        (also SN sites) to deduce social connection, SG semantic        indexing    -   FN proficiency methods for service providers (wisdom of crowd,        user specific) to construct aRN with RNO    -   Ability to create non-FN (asymmetric) for any SA (feeds, and        FN-API). Only monitor registered users who have profiles where        they agree to share info    -   Gui    -   RT feeds to/from vendors when users are shopping; competitive        offers when browsing for products. Sale bar from different        vendors for each product.    -   Group buying on or off RT feeds.

Use Cases—OneClickTennis

OneClickTennis.com is a tennis player matchmaking tool. It matches uptennis players by skill level, schedule/time availability, geographicallocation, etc. For each member tennis player it provides:

-   -   A calendar tool for tennis match scheduling    -   A “last minute pickup” auction of available tennis players    -   A match result and opponent feedback form    -   Tracking of one's standings/rankings in multiple tennis ladders,        tournaments and other events/venues/playlists.    -   History of matches, graphing of player's performance levels over        time.    -   In the background, there is a statistical inference engine at        work that calculates everyone's dynamic rating (skill level) and        creates matches between closely-ranked opponents, thus ensuring        that each match will be interesting for both players.    -   The website also features:        -   personal & group coaching sessions        -   league play (coming soon)        -   doubles mixer events        -   local tournaments and cross-area championships            As an admin of OneClickTennis.com, I become an architect of            the default FN for each of my site's members. Once I'm done,            each user will do his/her own fine-tuning. There is a wealth            of relationship/friendship information I could deduce from            my database. I can enroll my website into the FN server by            using the following approaches and considerations:    -   a. When two (or four) players play a tennis match, they become        acquaintances and form a connection in the FN graph. All such        connections are of type “OneClickTennis” (with possible        sub-types based on activities within my website).    -   b. People who have played w/each other more often are likely to        be closer friends: thus, the number of matches played together        can serve as an Orbit rank.    -   c. Being a partner (playing on the same side of net) in a        doubles game is a more “friendly” experience than playing as        opponents. Thus, two partners who have played N matches together        are closer to each other than two opponents.    -   d. Being on a league team (e.g. representing your tennis club,        city, university) creates strong ties to other team members that        often go beyond tennis. Thus, members of the same league team        will get an extra Orbital proximity rank.    -   e. OneClickTennis uses statistical modeling to calculate the        level of tennis skill of each player. This value can be used as        an indicator of Proficiency.    -   f. It should be noted that the main idea of Proficiency Rank is        for one friend to indicate how much he/she respects the opinion        of another friend about X. Just because someone is a better        player or have played a lot more matches doesn't necessarily        make one a good source of advice about tennis. However, the        reverse is typically true. So, the approach in (d) and (e) is by        no means perfect, but . . . . As an admin, all I can do is        provide this Proficiency Rank as a “conversation starter” to get        my users to start thinking and re-ranking manually those people        whom they really trust and take advice from.    -   g. Another value that can be used for Proficiency is the total        number of matches played and the total length of membership.    -   h. OneClickTennis is a tool for organizing various        tennis-related activities: coaching clinics, mini-tournaments,        doubles-mixers. The information about each member's activities        can be used to form activity-related sub-graphs (each members        sees them as small subnets within his/her overall FN) within the        “OneClickTennis” main activity. For example, I'd like to create        a subnet for each league team.        I use the FN API (it is a synchronous SOAP/XML/HTTP API):    -   i. Fn=createNetwork(networkName)—add OneClickTennis-specific        connector type    -   j. Activity=Fn.createActivity(activityName, description)—add        description of a sub-FN (e.g. the name of each league team or        university/college/high-school team, or the name of a tennis        ladder)    -   k. Activity.addFriend(anotherFriend, orbitRadius)—I will call        this for each tennis match, since each match creates at least a        basic connection between two people. The number of matches        played is used to calculate the orbitRaduis (i.e. the affinity        between friends).    -   l. Activity. setProficiency(friend, beholderFriend,        proficiencyRank)—sets the proficiency rank of friend—as        perceived by the beholderFriend. (in particular, this is what I        expect the end-users to correct and fine tune later). In        OneClickTennis, I have this info from 3 values—so I may need to        come up with a formula how best to merge these 3 values into 1,        the proficiencyRank. The 3 values are: membership length, total        # of matches played, and the statistical skill rating.

After I import the initial data from my website into the FN server, Ialso program these simple calls into my website code, so that it sendsupdates and new data on the fly.

I log in into the Admin pages of the FN server to see the resultingsocial graph that was created this way from the flat user database at mywebsite OneClickTennis.com.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example process 1100 for determining relevantcontent in accordance with various embodiments. It should be understoodthat, for any process discussed herein, there can be additional, fewer,or alternative steps performed in similar or alternative orders, or inparallel, within the scope of the various embodiments unless otherwisestated. In this example, a request is received 1102 for content to bedisplayed on (or otherwise presented via) a computing device, in thiscase for a particular user of the computing device. The user can beassociated with a user account and the user account can be associatedwith a portable aggregated social graph, which includes a plurality ofuser accounts organized into one or more focal groups based at least inpart on grouping criteria. In this example, the request can beassociated with grouping criteria which can include at least locationinformation such as a desired geographical location, an actualgeographic location, and the like. As will be described herein, groupingcriteria can include time information as well as additional information(e.g., interests, education, school, etc.) operable to group users intogroups. In accordance with various embodiments, a focal group caninclude at least one user account. For example, a focal group caninclude a user account corresponding to friends, family members, peoplewith common interests, corporate entities, etc. Individual user accountscan correspond to an entity such as a person, a company, etc. In variousembodiments, the user account is associated with user. For example,through common interests, requests to connect, family, school, etc.

In order to provide relevant information from focal group membersassociated with a focal group, grouping criteria corresponding togeographic location information associated with the user, or a useraccount, and/or device associated with the user can be obtained 1104.For example, in accordance with various embodiments, when an appropriateapplication is active, geographic location information associated withthe user's computing device can be determined. The geographic locationinformation can be used to determine a geographic location. The locationinformation can include a current geographic location of the user, or ofa device associated with the user, a geographic location of interest tothe user such as a desired geographic location or anticipated geographiclocation, a combination of a current geographic location and one or moredesired geographic locations, etc. Example geographic locations includegeographic areas or geographic regions such San Francisco, Calif.; acity, a neighborhood, a state, a park, a restaurant, a coffee house,etc. The geographic location, area, or region can be associated with anaddress or GPS coordinates, a zip code, and the like. In variousembodiments, the size of the geographic location is not limited by size,and can include geographic areas or regions of various sizes. Thegeographic location can be adjusted as needed or otherwise desired bythe user.

Once the geographic location is determined, one or more user accountscan be identified 1106 based on the geographic location informationassociated with the geographic location to determine a focal group thatincludes at least one member. The focal group can, in differentembodiments, include some or all of the user accounts associated withthe portable aggregated social graph. For example, information providedfrom user accounts that relate to the geographic location or groupedaround a topic of discussion associated with the geographic location canbe identified. In an example, this can include a user account publishinga review of a restaurant, a coffee house, a landmark, an event, or othersuch area, event, and/or object of interest in the geographicallocation. In this way, the location information can be used to select orotherwise filter user accounts based on information provided by the useraccounts that is associated with the geographic location to determine afocal group of members that have at least some experience with thelocation.

The identified user accounts can be associated 1108 with (i.e., focalgroup members) a focal group for the location and interactions of thefocal group members in this location can provide members of the focalgroup with information having relevance to the geographic location andthus the focal group of the geographic location. Access is provided 1110to information associated with members of the focal group based at leastin part on a relevance score associated with individual members of thefocal group. This can include, for example, providing information frommembers associated with a highest score although in various otherembodiments information can be provided in accordance with otherapproaches. Thereafter, the information can be used to supplement 1112content to be displayed on or by a computing device. For example, theinformation can be used to add, filter, emphasize, etc. contentdisplayed on a computing device.

In an example use case, a focal group of a geographic location includesa restaurant row of a city's downtown, with the focal group memberssharing reviews and ratings of a local restaurant on the restaurant row.A user of a web browsing supplement can obtain information of focalgroup members for this geographic location where the restaurant islocated, ranked by a level of importance. Thereafter, at least a portionof the information can be used to supplement content presented on acomputing device. As described, this can include in some embodiments,based on the content displayed on, or otherwise associated with aninterface being viewed by the user, utilizing an overlay or otherdisplay element to provide or adjust content displayed based at least inpart on the information. For example, the information on the interfacecan be supplemented by providing additional information (focal groupinformation) that is related to the information being presented.Additional information can include, for example, past experiences of oneor more of the focal group members, and/or recommendations by the one ormore focal group members based on the past experiences. In anotherexample and as described herein, the information presented on theoverlay can be filtered based on the information of the focal group.

As described, access is provided to information associated with membersof the focal group based at least in part on a relevance scoreassociated with individual members of the focal group. FIG. 12illustrates an example process 1200 for determining relevance scores inaccordance with various embodiments. In this example, in order todetermine relevance scores, and thus, what information to use tosupplement a presentation of content, and the order and/or arrangementin which to display the information with the content, a number of piecesof information is determined or obtained. It should be noted that whilethe information is shown in the figure to be done sequentially forpurposes of explanation, it should be understood that in many cases atleast some of these steps will be done concurrently or in differentorders as mentioned above. It should be further noted that in variousembodiments, information associated with a focal group member can obtaina relevance score in addition to, or instead of, the corresponding focalgroup member, and the relevance score associated with the informationcan be used in accordance with embodiments described herein. Forexample, the score can be used to identify information to supplementcontent displayed on or by a computing device.

In this example, a relevance score can be determined based at least inpart on a perceived level of importance of members of a focal group. Inan embodiment, to determine a level of importance, a level of affinitybetween the user and the members of the focal group is determined 1202,as well as a level of proficiency or expertise of individual focal groupmembers is determined 1204. The level of affinity and the level ofproficiency can be specific to a focal group member, for example, andcan be based upon specific member data.

In an embodiment, the level of affinity can be determined, in part, by amember's proximity to the geographical location of the focal group or ofthe user. Accordingly, in this example, location information for a userand location information for focal group members can be obtained. Thelocation information can be analyzed to determine one or more distancemetrics between the user, focal group members, and a geographicallocation. In the situation where the distance between the member and thegeographical location or user is small, or below a determined threshold,and/or within one or more determined thresholds, the affinity of themember can be weighted higher as there is a higher likelihood of thefocal group member's information being important and relevant to theuser.

The level of expertise or proficiency can be determined, based at leastin part, on a member's number of visits to a the geographical location,a member's association with the geographical location, a member'sexpertise, etc. In an example of a local restaurant, the level ofexpertise and/or the level of proficiency of a focal group member may bedue to a high number of visits by the focal group member to therestaurant, or because the focal group member is in a professional inthe food industry.

It should be understood that in light of the present disclosure,however, that other factors can be used in determining a relevancescore, and factors such as a respective member rank of the individualfocal group members on a particular topic, and/or a respective level ofperformance of past information provided by individual focal groupmembers, as well, among other such options.

In various embodiments, the level of affinity and the level ofproficiency can be numerical scores or other such values. An examplealgorithm, such as a ranking algorithm or relevance profile, can be usedto determine 1206 a relevance score of a focal group member based on ascore of the level of affinity and a score for the level of proficiency.The level of affinity and the level of proficiency can be weighted insome embodiments and the weights for these scores can be tunable. Forexample, the weights can automatically be updated and/or manuallyupdated.

Once the relevance scores are determined for individual members of afocal group in this example, the individual members can be ranked 1208,ordered, or otherwise selected based on relevance. At least a portion ofthe members, such as highest ranked members, can then be selected 1210based on relevance scores to have information associated with thosemembers used in the presentation (e.g., display, play, or projection) ofcontent to a user of a computing device, and can thereafter be utilized1212 for the presentation of the content based on rank.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example process 1300 for updating content inaccordance with various embodiments. As described, the affinity and/orproficiency between the user and each focal group member can influencethe ranking assigned to each focal group member and can adaptively varyover time based on actions of each member, or the user.

For example, a determination 1302 can be made whether there is a changeto members in the focal group. This can include in some embodiments theaddition or removal of members to a geographic location. In anotherexample, this can include a threshold change to one or more or a groupof relevance scores. The threshold in some embodiments can include oneor more relevance thresholds which can correspond to a threshold amountof change for a relevance score for an individual member, an averageamount of change for a combination of relevance scores for a group ofmembers, among other such combinations. In the situation where there isa change to members in the focal group and/or the change in relevancescore(s) satisfy at least one relevance score threshold, the relevancescores can be ranked and the members of the focal group can be ranked1304 or ordered based on determined relevance scores. Thereafter, atleast a portion of the members can then be selected 1306 to haveinformation associated with those members used in the presentation(e.g., display, play, or projection) of content to a user of a computingdevice, and can thereafter be utilized 1308 for the presentation of thecontent based on relevance. The process can then determine 1310 whetherthere is a change to the members in the focal group.

In the situation where there is no change to the members in the focalgroup, a determination 1312 can be made whether there is a change to thegeographic location. In the situation where there is no change to thegeographic location, or the change does not satisfy a change threshold(e.g., a minimum amount of change in distance), the current presentationof content can continue to be presented 1314. In the situation where thechange satisfies the threshold, e.g., a geographic change threshold,then the information used for presenting content can be updated 1314 andused in the presentation and/or modification of content in accordancewith various embodiments described herein. For example, when thecomputing device determines a change of the geographic location of theuser, a browsing supplement or other such component can adaptivelyupdate the information of the focal group of the geographic location,communicate the update to a focal group server, and cause updatedrelevant information associated with the members of the focal group tobe used for the display of content. In an example use case, as a userwalks along a restaurant row, and the geographic location of the userchanges, a browsing supplement can overlay the currently browsedinformation with information of the focal group, which is updated basedon the change in the user's geographic location.

In accordance with various embodiments, the geographic location can beadjusted as needed or otherwise desired by the user. For example, in atleast some embodiments, the user is able to specify a coordinate,address, or other such location associated with a geographic location.In some embodiments, for each location, the user can specify at leastone distance or other range-determining metric. For example, the usercan specify a radius, for example R, indicating a distance from thatlocation where the user would like members of the focal group to beselected from. It should be understood that while a radius is used inthe above example, other approaches to defining regions can be used aswell within the scope of the various embodiments. For example, a usermight define a city, region, or other such area as an area of interest.Similarly, the user might use rectangular or other shapes to definevarious regions. In at least some embodiments, a user can specifymultiple locations that each might have different associated focalgroups.

In at least some embodiments, the location of the user can be determinedthrough the location of an electronic device associated with the user.For example, the user might have a smart phone or tablet computer whichthe user typically carries with him or her at most times. The devicemight have a global positioning system (GPS) or cellular triangulationmechanism, for example, that enables the location of the device to bedetermined. It should be noted, however, that there is no requirementfor the computing device to provide any dynamic geographic locationinformation. For example, a user may choose a location different than acurrent location can access in accordance with embodiments describedherein information of a focal group of a desired geographic location. Inan example use case, a user is planning a vacation and has chosen ageneral destination area, for example, Bora Bora. A browsing overlay canprovide the user with ranked relevant information of members (at leastone) of a focal group for the given geographic location, Bora Bora.Similarly to the user, the focal group member(s) contributing the rankedinformation may or may not have had a geolocation-enabled computingdevice, but have communicated respective geographic locations in otherways, which can make their information relevant to the user. Thus,neither the user nor the focal group member are required to have ageolocation-enabled computing device for this embodiment to be possible.

FIG. 14 illustrates an example process 1400 for determining relevantcontent in accordance with various embodiments. As with the previouslydiscussed process, a request is received 1402 for content to bedisplayed on (or otherwise presented via) a computing device, in thiscase for a particular user of the computing device. The request caninclude grouping criteria associated with time information such as pasttime information or current time information, and the time informationcan be associated with at least one time event. A time event can be anevent occurring during a particular period of time. Examples of timeevents can include, for example, a sporting event such as Olympic Gamesor a tennis Grand Slam, a cosmic or weather event such as a meteoritefall or a snow storm, an ongoing event such as the Global Warming, andthe like.

The user can be associated with a user account and the user account canbe associated with a portable aggregated social graph, which includes aplurality of user accounts organized into one or more focal groups basedat least in part on grouping criteria. In response to the request, thetime information can be obtained 1404 and a focal group can bedetermined 1406 based on the time information, where the focal groupcan, in different embodiments, include some or all of the user accountsassociated with the portable aggregated social graph. For example, thefocal group can include members who are associated through one or moretime events, with the focal group members having experienced or arecurrently experiencing (or living through or witnessing) the event(s),or having relevant information of the event(s). Access is provided 1408to information associated with members of the focal group based at leastin part on a relevance score associated with individual members of thefocal group. This can include, for example, providing information frommembers associated with a highest score, although in various otherembodiments, information can be provided in accordance with otherapproaches. Thereafter, the information can be used to supplement 1410content to be displayed on or by a computing device. For example, theinformation can be used to add, filter, emphasize, etc. contentdisplayed on a computing device.

As described, a relevance score can be determined based on a perceivedlevel of importance of members of a focal group, where the perceivedlevel of importance is based on a level of affinity between the user andthe members of the focal group and a level of proficiency or expertiseof individual focal group members. In this example, the affinity offocal group members and their level of proficiency may be measured bythe degree of having and providing to the focal group relevantinformation of an event, and having more interest in acquiring furthersuch information. Providing relevant information can include publishinginformation (e.g., text, images, video, etc.) associated with an event.Interest in an event can be shown by following interest groups, people,etc. associated with an event, publishing information about the event,etc. In accordance with various embodiments, the time event of the focalgroup may be a past, future, or present event.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example process 1500 for determining relevantcontent based on grouping criteria in accordance with variousembodiments. In this example, a request is received 1502 for content tobe displayed on (or otherwise presented via) a computing device, in thiscase for a particular user of the computing device. The request caninclude grouping criteria, such as location information and, timeinformation, or other such information. As described, the user can beassociated with a user account and the user account can be associatedwith a portable aggregated social graph, which includes a plurality ofuser accounts organized into one or more focal groups based at least inpart on the grouping criteria.

In response to the request, the geographic location information and thetime information can be obtained 1504, and a focal group can bedetermined 1506, where the focal group can, in different embodiments,include some or all of the user accounts associated with the portableaggregated social graph. For example, the focal group can includemembers who are associated with a geographic location and one or moretime events, with the focal group members having experienced or arecurrently experiencing (or living through or witnessing) the event(s),or having relevant information of the event(s) at or near the geographiclocation. Access is provided 1508 to information associated with membersof the focal group based at least in part on a relevance scoreassociated with individual members of the focal group. This can include,for example, providing information from members associated with ahighest score, although in various other embodiments, information can beprovided in accordance with other approaches. Thereafter, theinformation can be used to supplement 1510 content to be displayed on orby a computing device. For example, the information can be used to add,filter, emphasize, etc. content displayed on a computing device.

For example, a focal group may comprise a group of members restricted byhaving a time and a space association simultaneously, being, or havingbeen previously, at the same time in the same geographic location, orhaving knowledge and relevant information of a particular geographiclocation at a particular time and providing that information to thefocal group. In an example use case, a focal group can be for weddingplanning, an event that is set to happen at a near-future time in apredefined location. Members of the focal group may be the guestsinvited to the wedding, with any of them at any time acting as a userperforming web browsing with an overlay of the focal group-contributedranked information relevant to both the wedding and the user's browsing.

Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or to “an embodiment”means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic describedin connection with the embodiments is included in at least one exampleimplementation or technique in accordance with the present disclosure.The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places inthe specification are not necessarily all referring to the sameembodiment.

Some portions of the description are presented in terms of symbolicrepresentations of operations on non-transient signals stored within acomputer memory. These descriptions and representations are used bythose skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey thesubstance of their work to others skilled in the art. Such operationstypically require physical manipulations of physical quantities.Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form ofelectrical, magnetic or optical signals capable of being stored,transferred, combined, compared and otherwise manipulated. It isconvenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to referto these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms,numbers, or the like. Furthermore, it is also convenient at times, torefer to certain arrangements of steps requiring physical manipulationsof physical quantities as modules or code devices, without loss ofgenerality.

However, all of these and similar terms are to be associated with theappropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels appliedto these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparentfrom the following discussion, it is appreciated that throughout thedescription, discussions utilizing terms such as “processing” or“computing” or “calculating” or “determining” or “displaying” or thelike, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similarelectronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms datarepresented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computersystem memories or registers or other such information storage,transmission or display devices. Portions of the present disclosureinclude processes and instructions that may be embodied in software,firmware or hardware, and when embodied in software, may be downloadedto reside on and be operated from different platforms used by a varietyof operating systems.

The present disclosure also relates to an apparatus for performing theoperations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for therequired purposes, or it may comprise a general-purpose computerselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored inthe computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computerreadable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type ofdisk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, magnetic-opticaldisks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs,EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), or any type of media suitable for storing electronicinstructions, and each may be coupled to a computer system bus.Furthermore, the computers referred to in the specification may includea single processor or may be architectures employing multiple processordesigns for increased computing capability.

The processes and displays presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general-purposesystems may also be used with programs and in accordance with theteachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct morespecialized apparatus to perform one or more method steps. In addition,any particular programming language that is sufficient for achieving thetechniques and implementations of the present disclosure may be used. Avariety of programming languages may be used to implement the presentdisclosure as discussed herein.

In addition, the language used in the specification has been principallyselected for readability and instructional purposes and may not havebeen selected to delineate or circumscribe the disclosed subject matter.Accordingly, the present disclosure is intended to be illustrative, andnot limiting, of the scope of the concepts discussed herein. Althoughspecific embodiments of the embodiments have been described andillustrated, the invention is not to be limited to the specific forms orarrangements of parts so described and illustrated. The invention islimited only by the appended claims.

What is claimed:
 1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:recognizing content presented on an interface of a computing device;identifying a portable aggregated social graph associated with a useraccount, the portable aggregated social graph including a plurality ofuser accounts organized into one or more focal groups based at least inpart on grouping criteria; obtaining grouping criteria informationassociated with the user account; determining at least one member for afocal group from the plurality of user accounts based at least in parton the grouping criteria, the at least one member having an associationwith a user of the user account; providing access to informationassociated with the at least one member based at least in part on arelevance score associated with the at least one member; andsupplementing the content with at least a portion of the information. 2.The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the groupingcriteria includes one of location information or time information. 3.The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the locationinformation includes one of a current location of the user or a locationof interest of the user.
 4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,wherein recognizing content presented on the interface further includes:using one of a semantic language technique or an image recognitiontechnique to analyze the content displayed on the interface.
 5. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: using anoverlay to supplement the content, wherein the overlay provides at leastsome of the information of the at least one member of the focal group,and wherein the overlay is used to at least filter the content based atleast in part on the information of the at least one member of the focalgroup, sort the content based at least in part on the information of theat least one member of the focal group, or emphasize the interface withan identifier, wherein the identifier is related to the informationassociated with the at least one member.
 6. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 1, further comprising: determining the relevance scorebased at least in part on a perceived level of importance of the atleast one member.
 7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, whereinthe perceived level of importance is based at least in part on a levelof affinity between the user and the at least one member, a level ofproficiency of the at least one member, or a level of expertise of theat least one member.
 8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7,further comprising: adaptively updating the level of affinity betweenthe user and the at least one member over time based at least in part onone of a proximity of the at least one member to a geographical locationof the focal group or the proximity of the at least one member to ageographical location of the user; and adaptively updating informationassociated with the focal group.
 9. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 1, wherein the grouping criteria includes location information,the computer-implemented method further including: determining a changein the location information; and determining whether to adjust membersof the focal group based at least in part on the change in the locationinformation.
 10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, furthercomprising: determining the change satisfies a change threshold; andadjusting members of the focal group; and adaptively updatinginformation associated with the focal group.
 11. A computing system,comprising: a computing device processor; a memory device includinginstructions that, when executed by the computing device processor,enables the computing system to: recognize content presented on aninterface of a computing device; identify a portable aggregated socialgraph associated with a user account, the portable aggregated socialgraph including a plurality of user accounts organized into one or morefocal groups based at least in part on grouping criteria; obtaingrouping criteria information associated with the user account;determine at least one member for a focal group from the plurality ofuser accounts based at least in part on the grouping criteria, the atleast one member having an association with a user of the user account;provide access to information associated with the at least one member ofthe focal group based at least in part on a relevance score associatedwith the at least one member; and supplement the content with at least aportion of the information.
 12. The computing system of claim 11,wherein the grouping criteria includes one of location information ortime information.
 13. The computing system of claim 12, wherein the timeinformation includes one of past time information or current timeinformation.
 14. The computing system of claim 11, wherein theinstructions, when executed by the computing device processor, furtherenables the computing system to: determining the relevance score basedat least in part on a perceived level of importance of the at least onemember, wherein the perceived level of importance is based at least inpart on a level of affinity between the user and the at least one memberor a level of proficiency of the at least one member.
 15. The computingsystem of claim 14, wherein the instructions, when executed by thecomputing device processor, further enables the computing system to:update the level of affinity between the user and the at least onemember based at least in part on one of a degree of the at least onemember obtaining relevant information for an event included in timeinformation or a level of interest by the at least one member in theevent; and update information associated with the focal group.
 16. Thecomputing system of claim 11, wherein the grouping criteria includestime information, and wherein the instructions, when executed by thecomputing device processor, further enables the computing system to:obtain event information during a period of time referenced by the timeinformation; and update the information associated with the focal group.17. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storinginstructions that, when executed by at least one processor of acomputing system, causes the computing system to: identify a portableaggregated social graph associated with a user account, the portableaggregated social graph including a plurality of user accounts organizedinto one or more focal groups based at least in part on groupingcriteria; obtain grouping criteria information associated with the useraccount; determine a plurality of members based at least in part on thegrouping criteria; associate the plurality of members with a focalgroup, individual members of the plurality of members associated withrespective information; rank the respective information based at leastin part on a relevance score associated with a corresponding member; andsupplement content displayed on an interface of a computing device withat least a portion of the respective information based at least in parton respective relevance scores of individual members of the plurality ofmembers.
 18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium ofclaim 17, wherein the grouping criteria includes one of locationinformation or time information, and wherein the instructions, whenexecuted by the at least one processor to determine the plurality ofmembers, further enables the computing system to: identify a first setof members associated with the user account from the plurality of useraccounts; and identify a second set of members from the first set ofmembers based at least in part on the location information and the timeinformation.
 19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium ofclaim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least oneprocessor, further enables the computing system to: determine therelevance score based at least in part on a perceived level ofimportance of individual members of the plurality of members.
 20. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein theperceived level of importance is based at least in part on a level ofaffinity between a user of the user account and the individual membersof the plurality of members, a level of proficiency of individualmembers of the plurality of members, a respective level of expertise ofthe individual members of the plurality of members, a respective memberrank of the individual members of the plurality of members on a topicassociated with the content, or a respective level of performance ofpast information provided by the individual members of the plurality ofmembers.